Polymeri Online 27.11.14 | Pam's Millefiori haute couture, Molds and cookies and buttons, Make your own sculpturing tools, Polymer belts, Masking tape to the rescue & De-stashing sale in my "garage"

Pam's Millefiori haute couture

Pamela Carmen’s flickr gallery is full of colorful animals decorated with endless blooming millefiori canes.

Fish, owls, birds, hens, frogs, all of them gets their coat of flowers.

In her owl sculpture she mentions ceramic as her base while only the veneer is canes.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/pamelacarman/

Molds and cookies! :)

Nerd Ecrafter posted a video for creating your own molds using only liquid translucent clay (she is using TLS by Polyform). She took an oreo cookie, embedded it into the liquid, baked it (twice) and created her mold instantly. You can use this technique to create any mold of your choice from your found objects as long as they are oven proof! yay!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qq_ofBGMUSg

Molds and buttons

Talking about molds, here is another example by artist Elena Semin, taking a button with a nice pattern and creating 2 molds/casts to form a double-sided bead with a pre made channel –

http://hobby-box.ru/phakturnye-businki.html

Don’t forget to take a look at the glowing snowflake tutorial– fun and easy project just in time for winter!

http://hobby-box.ru/master-klass-snezhinka.html

Make your own sculpturing tools

Ever wanted to create your own sculpturing tools? Diane Foster‎ published this PDF file on the “Polymer Clay Tutorial Collectors” FB group showing how to transform simple tools into sculpturing tools! The ebook is written by G. Schellert.

http://www.ringert.com/sculpting/MAKE%20YOUR%20OWN%20SCULPTING%20TOOLS_ebook.pdf

Polymer belt necklace

Ingrid Ulrich’s belt accessory is beautifully adapted to polymer clay. Stamped and antiqued it is giving the impression of the real thing. Located in Germany she is playing with various techniques in her designs.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/16881789@N07/8437844559/

http://www.ingul-schmuckdesign.de

Masking tape to the rescue

Remove excess polymer clay powders

Christelle Van Lingen shared in her Pinterest gallery a tip she credit Christie Friesen. By using a masking tape you can take off any excess powder left on your stamped image. I learned this trick from Laurie Mika when I was her student several years ago, when she used it on extra foil left on a design. That is really a neat trick.

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/8373949282726848/

I am de-stashing some of my extra tools and findings, if you’re interested you can take a look of what’s left, in my FB gallery –

https://www.facebook.com/iris.mishly/media_set?set=a.10152601243342968.1073741846.608452967&type=1&pnref=story

Have a great thanksgiving holiday if you're celebrating, and a great rest of the week :)

Polymeri Online 25.4.14 | Cabochonmania, Filigree Playdoh, Polymer mind games, Ceramic molds & Lady Gaga in Fimo

Have you seen Cabochonmania Facebook page? That is heaven for all cabochon lovers! 

This Italian artist (his/her name?) mentioned the cabochons are handmade of all kind of materials and styles - soutache, miyuki, embroidery, wire wrapped, bead embroidery, resin and many of them resembles polymer clay to my eyes.

https://www.facebook.com/Cabochonmania

http://www.cabochonmania.net

Edith Fischer-Katz, also known for her playdoh canning technique is playing again - this time it's creating a "filigree" or netting pattern.

Translated from hebrew, she designed millefiori canes and bordered specific areas in playdoh. Later on, these slices were baked and washed in water to release the playdoh. If nessecary she pushes the playdoh out with a tooth pick or another tool, taking extra care not to break the cane. Cool ha? 

Idit is a master artist in sculpturing and teaches classes. 

Her millefiori adventures are probably her way to experiment and be inspired.

http://www.tapuz.co.il/forums2008/viewmsg.aspx?forumid=1484&messageid=174433949&r=1

http://www.zoota.co.il

Here is a fun mind game. When looking at this geometric brooch you would think the coloured clay pieces are bordered with black clay - right? Well, it's only an illusion. In the tutorial you can see that the brooch is made using 2 layers: back layer is black, front layer is coloured and the small space between them seems like a black border.

http://kopilka.rv.ua/?p=9291

The project is copyrighter to http://squzy.com which is a russian website for crafters sharing their ideas, tutorials and articles.

Wash your eyes with Nancy Adams' (Roundrabbit) beautiful perfect round molds. Aren't they pretty? They seem like a huge collection of findings, buttons and other found objects embedded inside clay. 

Do you carry a piece of clay with your anywhere so that if something pops up you'll be able to copy its beauty into your clay? 

I always think about it but never really took the clay with me :) 

Nancy's ceramic beads are to die for, so vivid, colourful, vibrant and elegant!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/roundrabbit/4344315994/

This last link is a bit out of your comfort zone, and when I say comfort I mean dramatic and bold. 

Italian artist Umberto Mulignano (Fimo's love) created a replica of Lady Gaga in her video G.U.Y. . 

Since lady Gaga herself is not a shy person to say the least, you'd know what to expect. Many of his figures are inspired by her many faces and costumes. Umberto is a cake topper and a miniaturist.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.614329158643720.1073741877.252089181534388&type=1

Checkout his youtube channel for more of his work - http://www.youtube.com/fimoslove

Those of you getting ready to EuroSynergy - Have a great journey!

See you all soon and have a great weekend!

Polymeri Online 8.2.14 | Earthen polymer spirits, Humpty and Elise clay shoes, Maureen's molds tips and Polymer acrylic faces

This week it's all about faces! (and a winter flower)

Tina's goddess figurines

Tina Raewyn is creating ooak pieces inspired by nature and spirit. She loved all things earthy and her jewellery reflects the female spirit, passionate colourful side, mystery as well as strength and intuitive nature. Tina is using sculpey and sculpey ultra-light that are strong and light weight.
https://www.etsy.com/shop/TRaewyn
https://www.facebook.com/tinaraewyn

polymer clay shoes by Dan

Dan Crowley posted a new pair of shoes in his FB page, "Humpty and Elise". The shoes were made for a collector. He says it was fun trying to figure out how to fit Humpty into a shoe shape.
This Chicago based artist is creating his puppets for years and many of his sculptures are owned by collectors. Aluminium foil and felt are some of the materials he is using.
https://www.facebook.com/DanCrowleyStudio
https://www.etsy.com/shop/DanCrowleyStudio

Maureen's friends and molds

Maureen Carlson with her ever smiling face and pleasant voice, share with us her face mold tricks. She is taking her silicon molds and manipulating them into endless faces and expressions.
I had the pleasure of taking a class with Maureen a couple of years ago at Cabin Fever Clay Festival and it was such a wonderful class.
This 41 minutes video is full of character, don't miss her 2nd video on using her hand molds.
Face molds video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdB9TdwFm44
Hands molds video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQAde4n0kWI

Jordin's faces

Jordin Ispi from Queens, NY is a mix media artist working with polymer clay as well as painting and illustrating. His work appeared in many publications according to his resume and he is influenced by African art, Southeast asian art and Mexican masks. His polymer clay sculpturing were presented worldwide and made of polymer and acrylic paints.
http://jordinisip.com/painting/sculpture/sculp_h1026b_06

Today was such a sunny day that I wore my shorts and went for a walk.
Winter flowers are still around but I'm not sure we'll see much rain in the next months. Summer coming too soon?

Have a great warm weekend!

Polymeri Online 16.9.13 | Winning Mokume-Utensils, Horses-acrylic-polymer Trio, Pressed flower beads tutorial, Shiny vessels and Crazy clown earrings

First batch of September's holidays is over, second is still ahead, so between family gatherings, traditional feasts and other activities I am finding some time for PolymeriOnline posts.

Check out Rebekah Payne's tutorial for antiqued pressed flower beads. Rebekah is using polymer clay and molds to create these beautiful beads, her molds seem to be handmade but I am not 100% sure about that, I think you can create similar molds by using leaves from your back yard and embed them inside Mold maker, silicon base or even scrap clay.
Rebekah was mentioned in PolymeriOnline blog in April 2011, then, with her lovely heart pendant.
The Art Jewelry Elements blog is written by several contributors so you may want to look around to find more treasures.
http://artjewelryelements.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/how-to-two-more-pressed-flower-bead.html
This is a previous version of her beads -
http://artjewelryelements.blogspot.co.il/2013/08/how-to-inside-outside-pressed-flower.html

Caren's TRIO - polymer-horses-acrylic

Caren Goodrich is a lifelong artist. She paints horses in acrylic and also work in metal clay and polymer clay. These beauties are her horses meeting polymer clay, she did these with a very thin, watercolor-like application of acrylic paint and used a coat of liquid polymer as a sealer. According to her this kind of work is much more time consuming than her paper canvas painting....
https://www.facebook.com/caren.goodrich
http://beadbunny.blogspot.co.il/2010/04/painting-meets-polymer.html

Helen's Utensiles

Helen Hughes posted a beautiful set of utensils made of translucent mokume gane stack. She won Polyform's August Make-It-Your-Own contest.
Helen is enjoying her time in sculpturing as well and her Etsy store is all ready for Halloween!
https://www.etsy.com/shop/HelensClayArt?ref=l2-shopheader-name

Beefball Bowls

Beefball Papa's work looks and feels like glass & polymer clay all together.
In her perfect finish she creates a smooth and shiny piece which makes you wonder what these bowls are made of or if she places her canes are on the inside of outside....
Her mixed canes and patterns, looks wonderful.
She is from China, Beijing and I hope we will see more of her art.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/37203469@N02/

Crazy Clown earrings by Maddalena

Last is a colorful example of a very easy technique for mixing straps of clay to achieve a happy design.
Maddalena Gianni posted these earrings in her flickr and she calls them "crazy clown" design. She is from Piza Italy (Yay! been there!) and it seems that at the moment millefiori canes are her passion.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/maddalena_g/8672184262/

See you soon with more news and posts!